State of Beer, Raleigh NC

As we were driving across country this summer, we planned for lunch at Natty Greene’s in Raleigh, as we’d done several times in the past. But while the building was still there, Natty Greene’s was clearly gone from it. We were headed back toward the Interstate, trying to figure out what to do for lunch, when we spied State of Beer, maybe three blocks from our original destination. We saw people sitting at tables outside and decided to check it out. Good call!

State of Beer is a bottle shop, as well as a deli, and a bar with 12 taps. They have quite an eclectic collection of bottled beers and their taps are equally interesting. It turns out that State of Beer is affiliated with Trophy Brewing, also of Raleigh. They had a couple of Trophy beers on tap and we ended up getting a couple crowlers (a cross between a can and a growler) of their blood orange beer. The sandwiches we ordered were wonderful: on really good crusty bread, with very good flavors. So our annoyance and sadness turned into a happy dance. It was fun watching them fill and seal the crowlers, and the atmosphere was nice. They have a turntable and a collection of LPs with which they entertain the customers. This is a place we’ll be happy to stop at again.